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In UN Musical Chairs, Guehenno Returns as Advisor, Kerim on
Climate, Roed-Larsen's Connections
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 18 -- Former chief UN
Peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno has returned to the UN as a Special
Advisor on
regional cooperation, it was confirmed to Inner City Press on Thursday.
The UN
has yet to formally announce Guehenno's new post. On September 17, the
UN did annouce that the former head of the
UN's Office of Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel is returning as the UN's
envoy to
the Gabon - Equatorial Guinea territorial dispute. And on September 18
Srgjan
Kerim, only two days after stepping down as General Assembly President,
was
named a "Climate Change Envoy" of the UN system.
Inner City
Press is told that these returns are becoming a matter of concern to
the new
Under Secretaries-General appointed by Ban Ki-moon. Their predecessor
just
don't leave, but rather remain as possible back seat drivers. In some
cases,
the return is so that exemption from taxes and other perks of being an
international diplomat, such a the G-4 visa, can be maintained.
When
Guehenno was feted by the General Assembly's committee on peacekeeping,
Inner
City Press asked him what he would be doing next. He said it wasn't
clear,
maybe an institute, maybe writing a book. Then on September 18, Inner
City
Press was told by a well-placed source of the new post. It was
subsequently
confirmed, albeit off the record. Why not just announce it?
J-M Guehenno and Jan Pronk: one's come back, the other not
These
sources describe a process whereby some UN officials, even if no longer
effective, stay on. The example given was Terje Roed-Larsen, who has
clearly
worn out his welcome in parts of the Middle East. When Ban Ki-moon came
in,
however, Shimon Peres told him to keep Roed-Larsen around. The Hariris,
too,
took a liking to Roed-Larsen, and hooked him -- and apparently some of
the
institutes that he works for, according to the course -- up with the
Saudis.
Ah, public policy...
Incoming
chief UN legal officer Patricia O'Brien held her first press conference
on
September 18, but the questions were kept limited to next week's
treaty-signing
events. Inner City Press asked that she
return for a wider-ranging briefing, and she said that she would.
Afterwards,
another Office of Legal Affairs staffer said that Ms. O'Brien, like her
predecessor
Nicolas
Michel,
will try to keep questions limited to a single topic: the
Hariri tribunals. What about the Thomas Lubanga case frozen by the
International Criminal Court judges, and the thorny issue of when and
who UN
Peacekeeping should share information with the ICC Prosecutor? On
September 17,
Inner City Press asked incoming chief Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy for his
view on
sharing evidence, specifically in Sudan. "I'll have to ask OLA," he
said. But then the head of OLA could not take any questions about the
matter.
Next time, then.
Footnote: At OLA's
press conference, at which it
was emphasized that questions would only be accepted if about treaties,
Inner
City Press asked Ms. O'Brien about a listed 2005 treaty with no (zero)
parties.
It's the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in
International
Contracts. We're trying to raises its profile, Ms. O'Brien said. How
can you
have a treaty with no parties? It's
rather like a leader with no followers....
Watch this site, and this (UN) debate.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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